Lumber in My Minivan

2020, Bookcase, family, Family room, living room, New uses for old things, project planning, projects

Room Refresher: From underused office to fab family room

February 19, 2020by LumberInMyMiniVanLeave a Comment

We have a strange layout to our home, and somehow we have two bonus rooms. We currently have one of them set up as a playroom and one was set up as our office.

It was a beautiful office but we never used it. Entire weeks would pass without us even setting foot in the room. We decided the office would better serve us as a family room.

We eventually plan to put new furniture in this room, but after buying new furniture for our living room, we need to wait a bit before buying more. In the meantime, we need to save some money and decide what we want to purchase. We just moved our old furniture to the family room.

It’s not perfect. There are things out of place and there is a mess in the corner. But it’s a room where we can hang out and be comfortable. It’s a room we can relax in and not worry about messing it up.

Our eventual plan is to add new furniture, a new light fixture, new flooring and an entire wall of built in bookshelves on the back wall.

We have used this room a thousand times more since it became a family room than we ever did when it was an office.

What changes have you made to add function to your home?

Spring DIY projects: Chalk-painted mason jars

February 16, 2020by LumberInMyMiniVanLeave a Comment

Does anyone else collect wayward, neglected mason jars? Does a box of mason jars on a store shelf speak to you like it’s begging you to buy it? Well, maybe that’s just me.

I’m kidding, of course. Sort of. I have a shelf full of empty mason jars in my pantry. They’re all different brands, sizes and shapes and I love them. I store things in them, give them away filled with goodies for gifts and make things with them. Recently, I combined some mason jars with another favorite of mine.

Chalk paint.

Chalk paint makes the letters and details on a mason jar pop. Chalk paint makes a mason jar more than just a mason jar. It makes it decorative and pretty. Chalk paint also makes you walk, talk and speak foreign languages. Actually I’m just kidding about that last part.

Just apply one layer of paint first. You won’t like it after the first coat dries, but just like a lot of projects, it does have an ugly phase. Give it 12 hours to dry and apply a second coat.

And then you can use your jars for whatever you’d like. We use them to store pencils, markers and crayons.

Or we sometimes use them to show off spring flowers.

Or just put them on your shelf and enjoy them.

The possibilities are pretty endless.

Have a great week! Join us Wednesday for a little room refresher, family style!

2020, children, family, holidays, Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Gifts for Kids…That don’t involve candies!

February 11, 2020February 16, 2020by LumberInMyMiniVanLeave a Comment

Every year we struggle with what to get our children that doesn’t involve candy or sugar. While material objects are nice, we try these days to limit the stuff we buy and just spend money on things we can experience as a family.

Nevertheless, we still find some small Valentines goodies to get for our girlies. When you want to buy a small gift to go along with those experiences, here are a few ideas.

1. Colorful knee socks from Sock it To Me

Who doesn’t want unicorn socks? These cute little socks are less than $10 a pair. And they unfortunately don’t come in adult sizes ☹️

2. Matching family pajamas from Primary

These pretty heart printed jammies are less than $20 per pair. Maybe you and your family can book a special trip and all wear these matching jammies…or just wear the jammies and watch a movie together.

3. Small gold heart necklace, $25

I am a huge fan of giving sentimental gifts that people can keep for years to come. I love this dainty little necklace- It would be cute for mothers and daughters to have matching necklaces like this one.

4. Pack of scrunchies, Amazon, $8.69

If your little girl is anything like mine, you have a house full of scrunchies. So why not buy her 12 more? And aren’t these cute?

5. Ella+Mila vegan and cruelty free nail polish

This pretty and extremely safe nail polish is available on Amazon for less than $12. If your little lady loves having her nails painted, then this is perfect for her.

I hope you have enjoyed this list of Valentine gift ideas for your little girl! Have a wonderful week!

2020, decor, decor tips and tricks, decorating tips, living room, room refreshers, what's new

Room refresher: refresh your living room

February 10, 2020February 9, 2020by LumberInMyMiniVan4 Comments

When you saw it last, our living room looked a little like this.

In desperate need of new furniture and with a focal wall that was a big, blank slate.

I tried to liven it up with this gallery wall, but it still felt a little bare. I knew we wanted to make that focal wall a real focal wall, so I convinced my husband to help me build a faux fireplace from an antique mantle we bought.

And once that was finished and it established the focal wall I wanted, we started shopping for living room furniture.

I found these adorable chairs on Wayfair. They were very affordable and were delivered within a few days. We had to put the legs on the chairs but that was all.

We also bought a couch, an area rug and a matching rug runner.

Our couch arrived and while there was nothing wrong with it, the color wasn’t what we imagined it’d be.

We called Wayfair and arranged a pickup. They even loaded it back up and carried it out of the house for us. Wayfair has awesome customer service.

We ended up picking this couch up from a furniture store in the Raleigh area. It goes perfectly with our rug and chairs we got from Wayfair.

It matches so well it’s like we bought them as a set. We then arranged the furniture to face the fireplace.

We still need to find a new coffee table, new end tables and two new lamps. All in all, I am so excited about all of the changes we have made. I can’t wait to show you the finished room.

Have a great week!! We have some Valentine’s Day goodies headed your way.

2020, family, parenting, Personal, photography

Life with the Lumbers: What we’ve been up to!

February 8, 2020by LumberInMyMiniVan4 Comments

We enjoyed a low-key, no big deal weekend at home this past week.

Little Miss Daisy Mae loves looking out the window. You can bet if you open the blinds for her, she’ll be sure to check up on the happenings outdoors.

We removed a ton collar from a post in our backyard and found a colony of ladybugs! Since I like ladybugs, I thought this was pretty neat.

I also tried on my old pointe shoes and realized two things: my ankles are not as strong as they used to be and my shoes are too small. I have been thinking about taking an adult ballet class.